Update: excellent response from Obama. Political Judo, even. If he's able to consistently push back like this, they should have no problems.

So right in line with my post on anti-Obama smear emails below, <a href="http://openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=7228>a new high-profile advert from the McCain campaign:

Paris and Britney. What did I tell you, Whipple?

The real hammer-points here, of course, are Taxes and Oil. I don't think the tax argument will really affect many swing voters (there are some who were already convinced, but most realize that people making a couple hundred K can afford to pony up for America), but Obama and the Dems in general need a coherent answer to this drilling nonsense. It's working, from what I can see, even though it's bogus and people know it. They've turned it into a battle for leadership: even if it's not going to do any good, the Republicans are doing something and the Democrats are against doing something, etc.

At a certain point here, I'm going to have to get myself into the fray. As I've been relating to most of my political cohort, I'm not "sold" on Obama, in the sense that I'm not a true believer. However, I think he'd be a hell of a president, and I want him to win, and I can give you some pretty good reasons why.